Not only racers....

[Crag Cay]

Just to emphasise stability issues aren't linked exclusively to modern fin keel racing yachts, this happened recently in Aruba:

[Robin Larsson]

Damn, do you know what happend? Feels a bit erie, I gonna sail Tall Ships Race Baltic in two weeks time, not to fun to see ships of generally the same type go over. But I´m confident in the schooner I´m sailing

Wheren´t there a discusion here a while ago about selfrightning ability of monohulls? That said that not all monod are selfrighting. But, of course a sailing ship like the one in the pics are not able to right them selfs.

//Robin

[MikeJohns]

What is the story behing this Crag?

Looks like she is on her side in shallow water.

[Crag Cay]

I understand a violent squall lead to a B1 knockdown. She's reported to be laying in 5 fathoms.

[charmc]

"At approximately 12:30 p.m. yesterday, an unexpected gust of wind tipped one of Jolly Pirates' two tour boats. "It was very strong, just a few seconds," says Margaret Wever, an Associated Press writer and editor for Aruba newspaper The News. "The wind gust reached a maximum of 46 knots according to the Department of Meteorological Services. It was just unfortunate the boat was in full sail, and if you don't expect something like that, [an accident] can happen."

There was no warning that bad weather was on the horizon -- "It wasn't even a shower, it was a drizzle," Wever says -- and it departed as quickly as it arrived." (CruiseCritic.com/News)

Laid back tourist boat, crew maybe not in quick reaction mode, so no one tried to head up or release a sheet, lots of people sliding down to the lee rail, hatches and ports open ...

Shows how operations issues can influence stability.

[messabout]

I'm with Charlie. More than likely a human fault as opposed to a boat fault. The crew must have been most inattentive. I have never experienced a sustained gust of that magnitude that did not have a precursor. I suppose that anything is possible but I doubt the accuracy of the account. The account by the AP reporter sounds like a tale the crew might have told so that they could be absolved of some responsibility. On the other hand maybe Thor was pissed.

[Guillermo]

Microburst squalls can happen. Remember what happened to the 'Pride of Baltimore'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_of_Baltimore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_squall
Cheers.

[messabout]

I agree that microbursts are real. A shrewd and attentive sailor may not know when or whether they might be hit, but they will know that the potential is there. These are meteorological phenomena that do, indeed, have precursors. Racing sailors sometimes position themselves to take advantage of microbursts. These sudden winds are usually not of sufficient magnitude to dump a boat of the subject size.

Not to say it could not happen, just unlikely. The episode occurred in the low teen latitudes and I am not sufficiently familiar with idiosyncratic weather in that part of the world. From an elementary physics point of view, what you need for microbursts are temperature inversions where you have a hot low cloud and a cold surface.

[longliner45]

bummer ,,bummer,did she loose her ballast ?,,did she have ballast?,from the looks of the bottom ,,she has been around,,longliner

[Vega]

Originally Posted by messabout

I agree that microbursts are real....These sudden winds are usually not of sufficient magnitude to dump a boat of the subject size.
...

The climate is becoming more unstable every year. Look at the floods in England. Worst in many decades...and in the summer.

I was caught by a microburst on a summer night on the Med and I can tell you that the wind I experienced, for some very long minutes, would lay down almost any sailboat, providing they were under sail.

The important in these cases is the capacity of the boat to right itself up easily after the very strong but brief wind goes away.

Some traditional boats (especially bigger ones) lack this capacity.